Egyptians Celebrate Like No One Else

I went to two celebrations this weekend that illustrate the fact that Egyptians have a completely different idea of celebrating than anyone else.

First, my friend Erin's birthday is this coming Tuesday, so we celebrated it this weekend. Now, an Egyptian birthday is a bit different from they way anyone else might celbrate it. We began the same way that anyone else might, with a dinner out. Ours was a little upscale, this one was at the Four Seasons. Fantastic dinner, really expensive. After that we headed over to a club called After 8, which is just a small little night club in Cairo. You have to reserve a table to stay there, but really you can bring as many people as you want. The place is ALWAYS packed. One of the girls came only to the club and brought a cake with her. She sercretly gave it to the waiters there (we've done this before) and they brought it out around 1 in the morning. They also supplied 2 sparklers per person and some sort of firework to set off when the cake arrived. Then they play a Happy Birthday song, which is played everywhere for birthdays here. I'm not sure where it comes from but its about 3 minutes long and its like regular house/techno music. Its fun to dance to :) Lots of fire, lots of music, lots of dancing. Basically, that's Egypt.

I also went to a wedding this weekend. The director of the school's middle son was married to a pretty foreign girl (not sure where from, maybe Scotland..more on that in a minute). Now, Egyptian weddings aren't really weddings persay. There isn't really a ceremony, just a reception. We were told that the wedding started at eight, but we should show up between eight-thirty and nine because it wouldn't begin on time. Nothing on Egypt begins on time...which is very annoying to someone like me who likes to be on time for things. So we arrive there around 8:30, and lo and behold, the reception hall isn't even set up yet!! We were there for about a half hour until it was finished being set up. Then we sat inside, but the events didn't begin for ANOTHER twenty minutes or so. They said they needed to wait for as many people as possible to show up before they began. Then, finally, we all went out into the hallway. We were in the Nile Hilton on the second floor. Half of us stayed at the top of the stairs, and everyone else went to the bottom. There were two camera men as well, one at the top, one at the bottom. The two of them followed them around all night, projecting things on a screen in the reception area. The groom waiting at the bottom of the stairs as the bride slowly descended with her father. A man playing bagpipes accompanied them - which is why I thought she may be Scottish. On the landing in the middle, the groom and his father walked up and waited. There was a brief conversation (I wonder what they talked about!) and then the couple walked down the stairs with the two fathers walking behind them. They walked to a larger area of the ground floor where everyone followed and about a dozen men with tambra drums (hand drums) and a few other instruments played. Then there was a mini dance party where the bridal party danced to the music. There was a procession around the stairs after the dancing and then the bride, groom and the music brigade walked back up the stairs. At the top they continued to play while they waited to get in. Everyone else was let in before the bride and groom, and then they were announced in. After the introduction, there was dancing. And more dancing...and more... Finally, around midnight, they brought food to the tables. There were several traditional Egyptian dishes but I don't know what any of them are called. There wasn't a lot of food on the table though (as it was a family style type of set up), so we weren't sure if we should eat a lot of a little. Maybe an hour after appetizer dishes were put out, they brought out the wedding cakes (I say cakes because instead of one multi-tiered cake, there were several single layer cakes on many different level platters) and showed the bride and groom cutting the cake. Then, they proceeded into a separate unseen room and showed the bride and groom cutting a huge leg of meat as well. There was a HUGE buffet of food and deserts. Also, Egyptians don't drink with their meals - and I'm not referring to alcohol, I'm referring to anything. While there were bottles of water on each table, we only got other drinks inbetween food. One round of juice (which was odd) and one round of soda. There was no alcohol at this wedding whatsoever, which is normal for Egypt.
All in all, it was a interesting night - just very confusing foodwise.

Egyptian Mother's Day

This Saturday is Mother's Day in Egypt. It hasn't really been explained to me WHY its not the same day as American Mother's Day, but I do know it is on the same day every year instead of the first Sunday of the month. Egyptians, btw, do not have a father's day. I suppose in this culture, every day is Father's day.
The interesting thing about Mother's Day here is that they not only give their mother's presents, but i recieved some as well. Not that the parents of my students think I have children or anything, it just seems to be a common thing here. I got a lot of nice things, and some not so nice, but the thought was there. Its a very sweet gesture, but a very odd idea. Even when the mother's talked to me yesteday they wished me a Happy Mother's Day. I suppose the idea is that I mother them in the classrooms.
Here's what I got:
- Two plates with Egyptian drawings on them
- a nice bowl made of silver and wood
- a set of six cups
- two different perfumes
- a shirt
- a candle holder
- two candles
- a picture frame
- chocolates

I was very appreciative of these, and many of them will be coming back to the states.

Yesterday was our school Bazaar. It was a nice day off of work (kind of, we were required to be there at three) in which we just walked around to the different booths and watched our kids perform. A lot of people were there, and I spent a lot of time telling parents about how their kids are doing in class. I also received a lot of my gifts listed above here. The kids were fun, and it was nice to see them outside of their uniforms. The little booths that were set up to sell things were nice, though there were two booths with pets that were very sad. Egyptian pet store standards are significantly lower than American ones, and this booth was no exception. They had all kinds of animals, and they were all squeezed into cages. There were two very large guinea pigs in a cage meant for a hamster. They could barely move. It made my heart hurt just to see them.

I'll post pictures up soon (though some are on Facebook if you want to see)


EDIT:
I received a lot more gifts today.
- four coffee mugs
- about five assorted pictures in frames (one of which is gigantic)
- some fake flowers
- a barbie doll
- two clocks
- two sets of earrings
- two necklaces
- a set of three glasses

It was like my birthday :)

Tme moving quickly

I know that I haven’t written in a long time, but that’s mostly because nothing really exciting has been happening. We’re back in school these days, and time is flying by quickly. I can’t believe that in less than three months I’ll be leaving here! We don’t have much time left for teaching either. I wrote out an outline for the rest of my lesson plans for the year, and I was shocked to find how little time I have to teach. Not only do we only have about eight weeks left of school (the last few weeks are grading and wrapping up loose ends, no teaching after May 4th). But two of those are review weeks. So that only leaves about six weeks of teaching and that’s not much time to get the information in. Its just crazy to think about!
Besides school, I have been having fun. A few of us rented a felucca boat for an hour on the Nile. A felucca boat is pretty much a big sailboat, but a little less sophisticated than ones that most people own. It has a sail, a rudder and seats. No steering wheel or anything like that. But still lovely to ride on (especially since it comes with a driver! Ha!). The weekend we did that was beautiful and very warm, and the ride was just relaxing. Its getting windy here (sandstorm season is almost upon us), and that always helps move that boat along.
Last night we had what we all referred to as ‘second thanksgiving’ which was great. Everybody brought a dish to share, and we enjoyed a nice feast. There were about eight people all together, and about half of us brought desserts. We all ended up full though, so it worked out for the best – even if we were all sugared up for a while. Lately we’ve done a lot of hanging out on people’s roofs and playing cards. And Jenga! I’ve gotten a lot better at both of them. Its been really relaxing and I’m really going to miss everyone here. Don’t worry about me staying though, pretty much everyone is leaving after the school year ends.
Ok, I'll try to keep updating :) sorry about the long down time!